A lawyer’s role in estate disputes includes encouraging settlement when reasonable

As an estate litigator, one of the first questions that is often asked of me by a prospective client at our first meeting is whether I am a “shark.” The client wants me to go after a sibling and is looking for someone to litigate full throttle, with shock and awe.

The problem is that when a lawyer acts as a shark, tiger, bulldog or whatever animal you want to suggest, in most cases it is going to cause the opposing counsel to act aggressively as...